Old Becomes New
by SalTheCat
Summary: Nigh On 22,000 Years after the Great Alagaësin War (as faded memory has it), Eragon and Saphira slumber the eons away until one day warriors from the new land known as Earth capture the Dragon and Rider. They are experimented on and harmed, and while Saphira gets away, Eragon is left in their clutches while she fights to get him back before it's too late. Rated T, May Get Dark
1. An Invasion Of The Forest

A/N: this is my idea for an Inheritance Cycle fic I have been dreaming up for three years now, ever since I read the book. This very fic is almost the entire reason I started a FanFiction account. I've been super excited to get it out there into the world, so I hope you enjoy.

NONE of the characters are mine, I say this every fic and will say it again. Except for my OC's NONE of these characters are mine. My OC's are made entirely from my imagination. Please don't sue me.

The cover image is not mine. It belongs to it's owner, and while I don't know who that is it belongs to them solely.

When the humans invaded the sacred capital of the Elves known as Ellesmera, in a place once known as Alagaësia but now known as Ilirea after the city known once as Ilirea, then Urû'baen, then Illrea again only to be rechristened Ilirea city, an owl was sitting in a tree, observing the Rider and his dragon that sat below.

The Rider was youngish, with slanted eyes and pointed ears, the only thing setting him apart from the true elves was his hair, brown as rich dirt, and his stronger jaw and features. Still, he bore a striking resemblance to the natives of the city that he resided in when not slumbering away the decades, centuries, eons with his dragon as they rested in a cave nestled in the face of the crags of (oromis's home)

They had been doing this for nigh on 19,000 years now, ever since the last of those they cared for had passed on and they had resigned themselves to sleeping for months or years before rousing themselves for meals and water, only to repeat the process.

The owl watched as the Rider sneezed and the dragon chuckled at her riders cold, rumbling deep in her throat. The owl could almost hear what she was saying '_the nigh on 20,000 year old dragon rider brought down by a cold!'_

But that amusement was short lived, as with complete silence, humans in a camouflaging pattern of green and brown burst out of hiding. Before the Rider and his Dragon could react, a dart has skewed the Rider in the arm, and the owl ruffled his feathers in sympathy as the Rider collapsed.

As many wards as the pair had accumulated over the years, it was rather hard to shield against something you didn't know existed and owl could tell these people were not of this world. Yet despite his nervousness, he did intervene. There was nothing he could do and someone must tell the Queen to rally her forces.

The Dragon was quickly taken down by a dart as she crouched over her collapsed Rider, trying to defend him.

The owl watched intently and curiously as the men (and the several women scattered in the group) took a device and jabbed the Mighty reptile in the armpit, in a chink in her scaly armour. The owl gazed down, surprised, as her form shrunk and shrunk until it was the visage of a human women with brown hair.

_The ancient one, the elda, a shapeshifter?_

_This is a twist._

And as the owl watched, they are dragged off through the trees, lifeless and limp as rag dolls.


	2. Round-Ears and Odd-Smelling-Ones

The next long time was groggy and disoriented, as Eragon caught only hazy glimpse of what was going on around him, never conscious enough to use magic or contact Saphira.

And almost always in pain

_They stripped him down and strapped him to a cold metal table_

_They stuck him with an instrument and that penetrated right through his wards, and despite his will, he was forced to shift into his main form, a medium sized brown dragon as an odd current races through his body._

_(He hated being forced to shapeshift, The one skill he had hidden his whole life and told no one but Saphira about. He had always been the better spellcaster, while her talents where more in shapeshifting) _

_They poked him with more and more instruments, finally poking him with the first one again, putting him back in human form._

_More things are attached to him _

_Talking_

_Poking_

_Fear_

_Worry_

_Confusion_

_And pain, so much pain_

_it hurt _so much

* * *

_Saphira was strapped to her own cold-hard-table as humans buzzed and fretted sticking her with sharp-pointy-things_

_Then pain_

_Pain _

Pain

_She woke again._

_There was a round-ears man_

_Looked different-smelled different- seemed different._

_He asked her if she was a shapeshifter. _

_She said yes_

_Shapeshift, he said_

_Despite the round-ears-drugs in her system she shapeshifted, and the man nodded._

_She struggled to get to her feet despite the aches in her limbs and asked the man about her partner of heart-soul-mind even as she failed to stand_

_He pursed his lips, said that new legislation dictated that if the shapeshifter could not prove they were a shapeshifter they were legally not._

_She was confused_

_What?_

_Round-ears-exasperated-sigh. New legislation was recently passed saying that shapeshifters are free and cannot be contained and experimented by the government any longer._

If they can prove they're shapeshifters

_Your 'Eragon' did not pass the test_

_Saphira was aware of no such law about to be passed in Illeria but also had the good sense to be aware they may be somewhere else entirely._

_She nodded, but even as she got to her feet, the ground rushed up to meet her._

The first thing she did when she woke up, on a soft bed, shrouded in blankets, surrounded by foreign objects, was leave

In an instant she was up, smashing through a window of glass harder than what she was used to. Shifting into a bird, she glided out of the window, landing on the grass below.

She was on an ornate lawn, surrounded by ornate houses, in ornate neat little rows, along an ornate street, incredibly smooth except for the potholes occasionally marring its surface.

She glanced around, frustrated. Despite how huge the road was, there was no space big enough on the too-smooth-road to take off. Now that she thought about it, it was odd. She didn't have the age-drowsiness that compelled her to sleep in the age-worn-cave with partner-of-her-heart-soul-mind little one curled up next to her. Confused, she concentrated, feeling the familiar buzzing-skin feeling as she shifted into her dragon form. To her shock and dismay she was _tiny. _Her dragon form was a size It had been tens-of-thousands-of-years ago, when she had first left Palancar valley with her little one.

Doing something about that would have to come later, right now she needed to take stock of her surroundings.

She glanced around, sniffing the air. It was acrid and gross, and she wrinkled her nose.

The lawn was neat. The houses were near identical, the only differences being in ornaments on the sidewalks and porches. Glancing down towards the street, she noticed a line of boxes on poles, near identical but varying slightly from house to house.

This was definitely not Alagaësia

She needed to find Eragon, but how?

Hearing soft murmuring, she crept to the window of the house she was at, poking her head up to stare inside. "-disappeared", a man was saying. He, a lady, a girl, and the man from the place-of-the-bad-people were all sitting at a table. Papers were strewn across it, though Saphira could not make out the text.

(People were often surprised when they found out she knew how to read, which she usually responded to by huffing hot smoke in their faces. That usually shut them up.)

They were all round-ears, but that didn't lower her suspicions of them. Galbatorix was a round-ears, Roran, Fiery-haired Katrina, and more recent round ears like Birch the brightly-burning-youngling and even Ismira, who had died nigh on 17,000 years ago after living a fulfilling life as a rider.

Heck, Eragon has been a round-ears, and he been fierce enough to cause her to hatch for him.

He was right person

In the right place

At the right time.

But she digressed.

The round-ears were talking. "They just vanished… when my unit got to their place it was empty. Anyone or thing that had been here had vanished. Were lucky we got Saphira out when we did."

That sent chills down her spine.

How did they know her name?

The second round-ears, the one not from the bad place where she was talking to the other one earlier, continued. "For right now, there's no way to get her home. The devices they had been using to get between ala- how do you pronounce it?"

"Ala-gase-ia" the man-from-the-bad-place responded.

"Right, Alagaësia. To get between Alagaësia and our world were taken when they left. We know they are extremely powerful beings, but we also have no way to contact them, much less go there.

For right now, Saphira is stuck here. And her Rider is nowhere to be found."


	3. Where was he?

Saphira crouched down lower, startled by the news but still not entirely believing the round-ears

Eragon nowhere to be found?

She couldn't go back home?

Before she could stop herself, her butt hit the ground with a soft thud and the rustle of leaves as she fell from her crouch.

Inside, the conversation stopped

The front door was opened and out came all four round-ears, staring at her.

Rude

"Tell me the truth" she demanded "were you lying? Guessing? Can I really not get back home? Is Eragon truly missing?"

When they hesitated she snapped, "Well?!"

The from-the-bad-place-round-ears grimaced. "Everything you heard is true. Why don't you come inside and we can talk things out?"

Saphira sighed and followed them inside.

The house was just as ornate as some of Ellesmira's finest houses, albeit in a less nature themed way

She sat down at a wood table and the humans followed suit.

"First, introductions." The other man declared. He stuck out his hand. "I'm William McDonald. Most call me Will. This lady," he gestured at the woman, "is my wife, Alyssa. And the little lady is Natalie. Also, Mr. Grumpy over there is Jay Akimbo. He's your social worker." Jay huffed.

Saphira thought about her next words carefully.

"How do you know my name?" Will shoved the papers on the table towards her. She picked them up. They were files.

Going to hers first, she picked up a sheath of papers. It wasn't much more than even the common Alagaësian knew, like her titles, accomplishments, and general age, but what struck her was the description of the single experiment they had performed on her.

A physical age reducing procedure, almost completely experimental.

It had only been tried on one other person

Eragon

Steeling herself, she picked up the file on Eragon, almost immediately feeling sick as she beheld all the things they had done to him.

The age reducing procedure they had done on her, Among other, far worse things best left unmentioned. Again, in vain, she reached out desperately for him.

Where was he?


	4. Adventure Time, C'mon Grab Your Friends

Saphira sighed and reclined back on the cushions on the bed, the papers still clutched tightly in her hand. In her other hand was held a sheath of paper full of medical records. On the bedside table rested books after books after book, all for her to learn but not memorize. The medical records were 'hers', the ones the government of this country of " The United States Of America land of the free, home of the brave. America for short" the books were for her to learn basic geography and history. Will had promised that once she had those learned she could move on to other subjects. Again, not memorized, learned. Right now the goal was to blend in.

Their cover story so that Saphira could continue to reside safely in America until such a time where Eragon was recovered safe and sound and that had a way to get home was that she was a foster kid who had recently moved into the family. She has never known her parents and had been abandoned as a child. Now she was going to live as, attend school, and otherwise carrying out the normal life of an American teen all in an effort to disguise herself long enough to keep the bad men (who she was told were called W.E.E.D- World Enchanted Experimentive Department.) from finding her and all the while working to find Eragon in return.

It was a daunting task, learning everything the average thirteen year old (For that was what Alyssa had deduced her age to be) knew. She was going to eighth grade at Schrodinger Middle School in a week. She was 13 rather than 22,307. She was a human, not a dragon.

She did not have a Rider

She was alone.

With a sigh, she got to work.

People always assumed she didn't know how to read or do her numbers, but numbers she had learned when she was only a hatchling, and reading right along with Eragon. When they were in Gill'ead and Eragon was first learning to read with Brom and occasionally Joed he used to visit her cave in the evenings and read to her. Between the mental connection with the two of them and those precious evenings outside the city she has picked up reading quickly, and had used the skill countless times over her lifetime.

She had already been going at it in earnest for five hours or so when Natalie stuck her head in the room.

"Hey Saphira! Come here. I wanna show you something…"

Three days and two seasons of Adventure Time Later Saphira was hooked.

Three weeks after she first arrived in America, as she watched the finale and cried right along with Natalie, she saw that this world that had taken away the one most dear to her has its merits after all.

A/N: And That Was the Start of a Long and Meaningful Relationship With Adventure Time


	5. Hyphens and Minor Panic Attacks

A week later, it was time to go to school. So there she was, standing next to Natalie with a backpack full of school supplies, wishing and praying to all the gods above and below that she wouldn't have to be here long, that she would find her little one, safe and sound…

She fruitlessly reached out her mind again, desperately searching for him. Why couldn't she find him? Unless he was… no, he couldn't, even mentally separated like this she would know if he died. Not to mention he was too important of a bargaining chip. They had to know Saphira would do absolutely Anything to get him back. She would fight through their entire ranks just to get to her little one. So why no word from these stereotypical Evil villains, these bad-men, lurking in the background?

With a start she realized she was doing the 'Hyphen thing' again, as Will and Jay had dubbed it, where she bunched her words together. It had annoyed the heck out of her (and wasn't that a fun expression) that _they had the nerve- _right, her temper- that they were rude enough to criticize how she talked. Jay had been very rude, of course, but Will has been much nicer, stating that the odd speech pattern would attract attention. Of course, with the discipline that only someone who had trained with Oromis and Glader could manage, she has mostly cut out the habit, not to mention learned much of the material Will had given her and watched plenty of popular television (Right, TV) to relate to her peers. She has closely observed the speech patterns of Natalie to get an idea of how to talk. She was ready.

Maybe

Definitely not

She was alone, _she needed Eragon by her side why was he not here she needed him she hated being alone so emp- _

A soft tap on the shoulder jerked her back to awareness. Natalie was staring at her, concerned. "You okay?"

Saphira squared her shoulders and stared straight ahead at the glass doors with kids steaming in them, stoic.

He wasn't here, sure, but she had to do this without him. Her only other option was to fall apart, so deep into a rabbit hole of grief and loneliness that she would never return.

"I should be okay.

Let's go"

A/N: Hello! Sorry, You May have noticed chapters five and six went up and chapter five was corrupted and unreadable. Unfortunately The file was corrupted somewhere between google doc and . Sorry about that!


	6. Wink Wink Nudge Nudge

I apologize in advance for the major cringe in this chapter. Sorry.

As they stepped through the doors of the school Saphira was doomed to _waste her time in for the next who knows how long _students greeted Natalie and peered curiously at Saphira, wondering who this bright blue eyed, slit pupiled, muscular, and sharp-toothed person was doing here. She was like a female Kerrovittar for goodness sakes! She wondered idly if this was the world he came from. There was a country called Russia here, wasn't there?

She was suddenly distracted by one less polite individual asking who was with Natalie. Sticking out a hand, she grinned. "My name is Saphira. Nice to meet you." The person grinned back. "Arnold." They shook hands. He was short, with mousy brown hair and a chubby face."This," Natalie introduced, "is one of my best friends. Right along with Cheez-dum"

Saphira raised an eyebrow. She was pretty sure Cheez-dum's were snack food.

Natalie laughed. "We call her that because of her orange hair and overarching love of Cheez-dums. In kindergarten bully's liked to call her that and the name stuck."

Saphira sighed slightly. This would be an interesting.

Homeroom, she met Cheez-dum, a bubbly girl with chair the color of Cheez-dum's themselves. She gave them a peace sign and immediately began to prattle on with Natalie about something while Saphira read _The Little Prince. _When she was done with that, she promptly moved on to Harry Potter, which Natalie personally despised but recommended she read anyway.

During homeroom with the English teacher she was given a schedule, the same as Natalie's, that she was to follow all throughout the day.

First period, Earth Science . Nothing she didn't know, Oromis had taught Eragon well. They are studying for a test in the intense way Saphira got the impression was the norm. The teacher, Mr. Noct, was kind to her, though he quickly realized she already knew all the material and began to question her just as much as the rest of the students. He reminded her of Oromis, with his silver hair and lithe frame, and she rather liked him.

Second Period, Tech Ed. Rex Robotics Unit. The les said about that the better. She was decent with her hands, sure, but these were inventions that simply had no equal in Illeria. She was tempted to take notes to bring back home, but decided against it. As soon as Eragon was back home, safe and sound and healthy, she planned to pull more than a few strings to cut off all ties and pretend Earth didn't exist. (A little niggling voice at the back of her mind pointed out how cruel that would be to this new family her new friends she had gained, not to mention it might require an earthlings treatment to undo the damage they had wrought on her little one.

She tried to ignore that voice)

Third Period, Math. Again, easy. They knew their numbers. They had to! Years and years of running a colony, and later the riders proper as more and colonies sprung up had given them a very good sense of numbers, as much as Eragon had despised their job more days than not. Saphira got it, he was a restless soul. Heck, so was she! When he would wish he could just strap on his sword and set out to find some adventure she wished right along with him. By the time Eragon felt comfortable retiring she already spent much of her time slumbering away in a cave the two of them had picked together. The age-sleep, the bleary hibernation that all dragons were affected by if they lived long enough. It caused them to sleep away the eons, only occasionally rousing themselves for food or water or the potty-potty. When Eragon finally retired, he was already slowing down and sleepy as the age-sleep bled over to him from their mental link, no matter how much Saphira tried.

Fourth Period: American History. This was a class she really needed. If she was to learn the history of this country it was probably important she pay attention in this class.

Next up: Lunch! She stood in line and revived chicken nuggets and mashed potatoes as well as veggies. As excited as she had been for lunch before she picked at her food. The chicken nuggets were disgusting, they tasted nothing like real chicken freshly killed by her own claws.

Fifth Period was Reading. Again, super easy. For someone who hadn't learned to read until he was 16, Eragon read huge amounts.

Sixth Period turned out to be gym, something called dodgeball where apparently the entire goal was to whip balls at people.

Also it turned out you weren't supposed to go for the face.

Finally, last period. World Languages. She was sad to find out they would not be learning the Ancient Launguage, which she thought was stupid. What was the point of learning Bits of Latin, Spanish, German, and French when you could learn the literal language of the Universe! When she pointed this out to Natalie she gave her andfunny look and then looked away, shaking her head.

When they got home on the bus, they ate a snack and chatted for a little while about _Adventure Time _until

Saphira's keen ears head footsteps outside. The front door opened and Will came in, wearing a blue uniform with a large utility belt. Seeing Saphira's curious look he grinned . "I'm a police officer. So basically I- oh hold on, do you have those in your world?"

"ummm sure? I mean they 'police people' but we don't call them Police Officers"

He shrugged. "Works for me. Anyway Aylssa works late on Tuesdays so let's eat! Where do you guys wanna go?"

ALSO SO I DONT GET SUED: Eragon, Saphira, Oromis, Alagaesia, Ayra, Firnen, Thorn, Murtagh, and all the rest of Cristopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle cast and locations DO NOT belong to me. They belong to him. Please don't sue me.


End file.
